Restructured Jerky Question

[mrobisr]

Bottom line is that the USDA now recommends a moist heat to kill pathogens prior to dehydration. Short of a commercial set up the recommended method is the oven first then dehydrating, but as Dave AZ said the texture was not pleasant. The only solution that I have come up with and will do on my next batch is to marinate the meat in vac bags then sous vide in the bag to pasteurize the meat of all pathogens for time instead of the higher temp and then dehydrating the meat. This should achieve the moist heat as USDA recommended, but not over cook the meat so the texture is desirable.

[wvhunter1965]

processhead,

Here are the specs on the dehydrator.

[processhead]

wvhunter1965 That sounds like a good, high power unit with plenty of heating capacity relative to the size of the chamber.

I would think you should be able to hold the necessary temperatures for what we are discussing.

Are you able to close off or throttle back the discharge vent? If you are moving too much air through the unit, it would make it harder to hold a higher temperature.

[wvhunter1965]

Dave in AZ ,

So the results are in and the dehydrator is far from sufficient. I did a test batch and it took far too long to reach temp.

I have also placed a test batch in the oven at 350 and it took about 12 minutes to come to 165. I then used the dehydrator to finish drying the jerky and it came out just fine.

Thanks again for the help to all who responded

[Dave in AZ]

wvhunter1965 thx for the follow up. Just in case it affects your process, the usfda Come Up Time is 6 hrs, so from 50f to 130f 6 hrs is the max CUT. So your dehydrator may be fine?

[wvhunter1965]

Thnx Dave in AZ. Appreciate the info as always. I will likely stay with the oven first from now on. It didn’t affective texture much at all, at least to my eye and it seems to be the safest method at my disposal at this time and the added time/ steps are not over burdensome at all!

[bocephus]

wvhunter1965 Sounds like you have a process that you like, thanks for the info.

[wvhunter1965]

So now that I have the temps and all figured out, I have another question for those knowledgeable folks out there.

For the jerky seasonings, do the recomended seasoning measurements apply to restructured as well as whole muscle jerky or do they need to be adjusted? I have done a couple of different ones and they seem rather salty. I am curious if the seasonings being mixed into the meat should be less than when being marinated

[Dave in AZ]

wvhunter1965 I do recall there has been a thread or two about this. Think the concensus was less salt/spice soaks into whole muscle, lot is left in the marinade bag. While 100% is inside the restructured. So yes, use less.

How much less is the problem. Jonathon has a nice Meatgistics U video on making restructured jerky. Ut it doesnt talk about spice concentration. He uses 9.1oz for 15 lbs meat, which is just it’s recommended dosage for 25lbs adjusted for 15 (* 3/5). What I would tell you is this: use the snackstick seasoning amounts and spices, not the jerky version amounts. Snacksticks are usually a good spice level, and restructured jerky is just a flattened snackstick dried to about 50% weight. So it will be 2x as salty as the planned snackstick if using recommended amounts.

Jonathon indicated he liked that level when using the Dill Pickle snackstick seasoning for restructured jerky and drying to 50%, so I’d go with that. Or use half, if you like how salty an undried snackstick is.

[Dave in AZ]

wvhunter1965
Oh also, as a reference, I use Willie’s snackstick seasoning at recommended levels. But then I dry my snacksticks to maybe 70% original weight, so not quite as much as restructured jerky 50%. I’m happy with the salt and spice, but it is at the very top end of salty. So I’d go 50 to 70% recommended usage if using Willie’s.